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October 9-13th, 2013 Total Wealth Symposium
The Ups and Downs of Investing in Strategic and Precious Metals
Rare Strategic Metals
Humans have long prized the inherent value of precious metals, especially but not exclusively, gold and silver. The beauty of the metals themselves notwithstanding, precious metals were often the physical basis of coins in many ancient civilizations and a monetary standard in numerous more modern cultures. Jewelry crafted by premiere artisans of the time served as status symbols for kings and queens, emperors, pharaohs and discriminating, wealthy patrons. Today, the use of precious metals in industry, space exploration and manufacturing — just to name a few — has increased their desirability. Prices for the standards, gold and silver, are often driven higher during a period of perceived scarcity. Investing in precious metals isn’t always a smooth course, but, with wise oversight and expert advice, critical roadblocks can be minimized or eliminated.
Demand for strategic and precious metals are on the rise. Huge industrial markets in China and India have created an ever-increasing demand for strategic metals such as tungsten, chromium, cobalt, gallium, indium, as well as silver, platinum and gold. The uses of strategic metals are many and surges in electronics, wind turbine energy, cellular phones, fiber optics, computer chips, solar cells, electrodes, capacitors, aerospace communication — all forms of advance technology — has created a rising demand for these metals. The following list reveals a quick overview of the benefits of investing in precious and technological metals. Physical metals are:
- Tangible assets
- A protection against inflation
- Bought and sold in many forms
- Insurance against hyperinflation
- Robust investments in the global market
- A good way to diversify against investment risks
- A protection against currency devaluation
While strategic metals are expected to appreciate over time, each investor must make his or her own well-informed decision. Before taking any investment plunge, savvy investors should become well versed in the nature of any possible roadblocks.
- Volatility in price
- Concerns with changing industrial supply and demand
- Industry performance
- Possible humanitarian and environmental problems
- Increased cost of raw materials and fuel
- Government whims and influences
Despite these critical roadblocks, the outlook for investing in precious and strategic metals looks positive; these metals continue to be in high demand and show no signs of slowing, due to their ever-increasing role in industry and manufacturing.
With an investment of a diverse basket of strategic metals stored in a repository in Switzerland or Panama, you will be buying metal, not paper. You invest directly in metals that have a long history of intrinsic worth and burgeoning value in industry. It’s worth noting again that, in order to protect your hard-earned assets, Swiss Metal Assets gives you physical ownership of metals and stores it for you in Switzerland or Panama, tax and duty free. Preserve the wealth you’ve accumulated and realize a profit by doing so.
Strategic Rare Metals - Critical for the Future of US Defense
Rare Strategic Metals
As more and more dollars get printed, it gets harder to foresee a future that doesn’t include significant inflation. If you’re worried about inflation, you can protect yourself by purchasing tangible assets with fixed values. Gold, oil and gas interests, and real estate are all examples of assets that typically hedge against inflation. However, if you aren’t including strategic rare metals in your investment portfolio, you’re missing out on a major opportunity.
Strategic Rare Metals
These compounds are naturally occurring elements — just like gold or aluminum. Like gold, they are relatively rare. Unlike gold, which is primarily used for investment or for leisure spending, strategic rare metals are extremely important in the manufacture of many of the goods that you use. You might not have heard of iridium, for instance, but it’s used in light-emitting diodes and in flat-screen displays. It is also 10 times rarer than gold, based on its natural occurrence in the Earth’s crust.
Much of gold’s value comes from popular opinion, rather than from its intrinsic usefulness. It is relatively unimportant for industrial purposes and equally attractive jewelry can be made from different compounds. While it has been held to be a valuable compound for thousands of years, there is relatively little justification underpinning that belief. Strategic metals, on the other hand, are valuable because they’re necessary. Fuel cells, computer chips, optical lenses, pharmaceuticals and military devices can’t be made without them. This gives them real, intrinsic value, and can make them a particularly useful tool to protect your wealth against future erosion in the dollar.
Metals and Defense
The defense industry uses strategic rare metals heavily:
- Gallium. Communications devices use gallium.
- Iridium. Iridium is used in many optical applications including night vision, laser tracking and target recognition systems.
- Rhenium. The ability of rhenium to withstand extreme temperatures makes it crucial for fabricating parts in military jet engines.
- Tantalum. Weapons systems designers that need small, but high-capacity, capacitors turn to tantalum alloys.
- Tungsten. Once used heavily for incandescent light bulbs, tungsten’s hardness makes it an important part of penetrating armaments and other projectiles.
Without these strategic rare metals, the nature of military hardware would have to change overnight. During both good times and extremely bad times, the military has the ability to spend either because tax revenues justify it or because the government wants to protect itself. With this in mind, the rare metals that the military needs to function can be an excellent hedging investment.
Owning Strategic Rare Metals
Owning strategic metal isn’t like buying copper or aluminum. Many of them have prices that are roughly comparable to that of gold, so the quantities that you typically need to buy are reasonable. Like gold, you can buy physical metals rather than depending on a paper-based investment where you don’t truly have ownership that you can count on. Rare strategic metals can even be held in a self-directed IRA and can even be stored overseas, giving you a foothold in another country in the event of severe instability in the United States.
Whether or not you realize it, strategic rare metals power most of the devices in your life as well as driving the country’s military. You’ve benefited from them for years. Now, you can also benefit from their stability and value by including them in your investment portfolio.
